No Portals and Gravity Shift in Prey 2

Two of the original Prey game's biggest features will not be in the sequel. The ability to shift gravity and warp through portals will be absent from Prey 2, which is getting a 2012 release. With the exclusion of these features, will it even be a Prey game?

“We explored a lot of the ways you could use portals and gravity in combat, and I really wanted to shift away from making it too much of a puzzle game,” lead designer Chris Reinhart told the latest issue of PSM3.

Shifting Prey 2 away from being "too much" of a puzzle game could make it just another alien shooter and instill disappointment in fans who have waited five years for the sequel. Coupled with Talon's guiding ways, the original Prey felt like a genuine extra-terrestrial shooter purely because of the ability to plant portals all over the place. While level designs were intricate at times, there was a good balance between puzzles and frustration.

Reinhart's reason for taking out gravity-shifting and portals is the removal of the Sphere, the spaceship that lead man Tommy destroyed at the end of Prey. While that's obviously a fair point, you can't just take out two integral features unless they're being replaced with something hilariously awesome. I guess we'll have to wait and see in May, when further details of Prey 2 emerge.